Senior Research Scientist and Program Area Co-Director, Reproductive Health and Family Formation, Bethesda, MD

Areas Of Expertise

Education & Certification

Ph.D., Sociology, Duke University

Jennifer Manlove, co-director of the teen pregnancy / reproductive health research area at Child Trends, is a sociologist with more than 20 years of post-doctoral experience researching adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health decision-making, pregnancy, and fertility. A key component of her research focuses on the role of intimate relationships and partners in sexual activity, contraceptive use, and unintended pregnancy.

Dr. Manlove has extensive evaluation experience in teen pregnancy prevention. She is the lead evaluator on three random assignment evaluations of new and innovative teen pregnancy prevention approaches, including a mobile app-based approach to teen pregnancy prevention focused on Latina and African American women in their late teens; a school-based, gender-transformative teen pregnancy prevention program in Austin, Texas that incorporates teen parents as co-facilitators; and a program focused on violence prevention, gender norms, and reproductive health among teen and young adult men in the Washington, DC area.

She has been the principal investigator on several research grants from NIH and other government agencies, conducting research on contraceptive use patterns among adolescents and young adults, unintended and nonmarital childbearing, and the transition to fatherhood. She also has a history of research related to effective adolescent pregnancy prevention approaches, including program development and synthesizing characteristics of effective adolescent pregnancy prevention programs, and research focused on improving reproductive health outcomes among Latinos.